On Human Horns

Posted on October 31st, 2007 by Carlos

The novel that I am working on now is a modern-day demon-impregnation story that takes a lot of its research from the Malleus Maleficarum, the book that served as the ultimate inquisitor’s reference during The Inquisition. But since it’s a modern-day demon impregnation story, I’m looking for ways to base at least a few of the fantastic things in the story on reality. And that led me to to try and discover if it were possible for humans to grow horns.

Wild-goose chase, you say? Foolish waste of time, you chortle? Take a look at the picture below, which I got from the World Journal of Surgical Oncology:

That right there is your basic cornu cutaneum, or human horn. Here’s how the article writers, Eray Copcu , Nazan Sivrioglu, and Nil Culhaci describe them in the paper’s abstract:

Cutaneous horns (cornu cutaneum) are uncommon lesions consisting of keratotic material resembling that of an animal horn. Cutaneous horn may arise from a wide range of the epidermal lesions, which may be benign, premalignant or malignant.

That “keratotic” is to my mind the most interesting part. The horn is made of keratin, like hair and fingernails.

According to this article, the horns are usually a result of prolonged sun exposure, so they usually affects our parts that get the most sun: scalps, hands, ears (!), eyelids (!!), lips (!!!), and even the “buccal mucosa” or inner lining of the cheek (sorry, ran out of exclamation points). In another source a while back I read that they also can grow out of the shafts of penises, but unless we’re talking some serious sunbathing, I don’t see that account jiving with the account our team of assiduous doctors presents here. But hey, I’m writing fiction. I still may give my demon a horn on his wee-wee.

Most of the time (60%), the horns are benign, but they can be pre-cancerous, so people who have them should get them checked out. As if you should have to tell someone with horns growing out of his/her head to go see a doctor.

But on the other hand, it’s hard for me to imagine a more visibly-ostracizing disease than having horns growing out of your body. Just take a look at what this poor devil (sorry, couldn’t resist) wrote in 2006 about his (? her?) condition (NB — Everything is exactly as written; just copy’n'pasted):

Im growing horns. They are at the top of my head, in perfect symetry. im trying 2 find out some more information 2 help explain it. For a long time I was too afraid 2 do anything about it and one day I worked up the guts 2 go ask my doctor and she said they are made from keratin like ur fingernails. They are quite small now not 2 much bigger than a marble but she said they would probably get to be three times that size when finished growing and told me Im not the first person to have this occur either and to have them cut out/shaved down… I dont trust doctors that much and as its just a natural part of me, I decided against it. does anyone know anything about this or know of any other sites that might help me find out more?

There’s real courage in this little discussion board post, but it also makes me a little sad. And the bastardo responses s/he gets from almost all respondents don’t help either. The post was from a year ago; I hope the person got the horns biopsied.

My own use of human horns will be, I hope, much more humorous. People who get possessed by demons will naturally grow horns, but at least now they’ll have a medical explanation to fall back on and help deflect attention from their true natures. Bwa ha ha ha!